294 NOETH-EAST AFRICA. 



The Nubians Proper. 



The Barbarins are amongst the darkest of the African tribes. Their com- 

 plexion varies from the colour of Florentine bronze to an almost bluish-black ; but 

 under their dark skins are transparent reddish hues, by which they are clearly 

 distinguished from the Central African Negroes. The head is dolichocephalous, 

 and the receding forehead is covered with hair which, without being woolly like 

 that of the Negro, is nevertheless very wavy. Like the Nigritians they have a 

 scanty beard, but their features are much more regular ; and Barâbras are 

 frequently met with who come up to the standard of European beaut3^ The nose 

 is straight and firm, with broad nostrils ; the lips, clearly cut, are rarely thick or 

 pouting ; the teeth are small and beautifully white ; the cheekbones are slightly 

 prominent, and their regular features are set off by large, open, lustrous eyes. 



The Barâbras are of middle height and well proportioned ; the chest is shapely 

 and broad, the forearms and calves are somewhat slight, but less so than amongst 

 the Bedouin nomads. Like the Funj and Bejas, they have the custom of making 

 three oblique scars on each cheek, for which they can give no reason, as it does 

 not serve to distinguish them from other peoples of Negro or Beja race. Under 

 the pretence of working medical cures, the Barâbras also disfigure their handsome 

 bodies with wounds. Directly they experience any local pain or mere uneasiness, 

 the barber cuts a gash in them, and draws off the blood which escapes from the 

 wound through a cow's horn ; but to prevent the wound from healing too quickly 

 it is kept open by irritating powders. At other times nails are made red-hot 

 and thrust into the flesh by the head or point, according to the gravity of the 

 disease. 



The usual dress of the Nubians consists of a tunic, over which they wear a 

 long blue cotton robe like that of the Egyptian fellahin. The dress is completed 

 by sandals and a felt skull-cap, for which some substitute the turban. Weapons 

 are forbidden, but there are few men who do not carry a knife or poignard con- 

 cealed in the left sleeve and attached by a twisted leather thong. 



In the southern part of Nubia the majority of the young girls, instead of 

 tunics, still wear the rahad, or girdle of fringe ornamented with pearls, glass 

 beads, and shells. Nearly all the northern and southern Nubian women wear a 

 ring in one of their nostrils, and pierce the lobe of the ear, inserting pieces of 

 white wood, awaiting the time when their husbands shall replace them by trinkets 

 of metal. The female manner of wearing the hair is still the same as that repre- 

 sented on the Egyptian monuments ; but when a woman dies it is quite a day's 

 work to unravel her hair, which is saturated with grease and ochre, because their 

 religion forbids that they should be buried with the hair dressed. Some women 

 after having curled their hair, cover it with a thick coat of gum, which causes it 

 to grow round the head in the shape of a polished helmet. 



The Nubians are laborious agriculturists. Like the Egyptians, they water the 

 soil with the shaduf or sakieh, and sow it with durrah, dokhn, and other cereals. 

 But the produce of their fields, restricted to a narrow zone between the river and 



